Friday, November 28, 2014

Skiff Stories: Poinen Lights - Currin Training

Catching outlaws at Highsec gates while they head to their target has always been one of my favorite activities. It is another confirmed way of effectively disrupting their operations by simply using the existing game opportunities and mechanics.

"I forget his name, but this guy in Caldari space sits on highsec gates in a battle skiff and tackles any red blinkies he finds. Ive watched him point 2 catalysts at a time, tank them, and kill them."

Currin Trading is another bot-aspirant "pod-hunter" who wanders across Highsec.

He was spotted in his outlaw Thrasher without a ganking permit in Poinen.

One thing gankers fail to realize is: Anti-Gankers also do make plans, traps and above all, create emergent gameplay. As the commander of my Skiff of Doom, I was responsible for quickly figuring out Currin Trading's route and choosing an appropriate stargate, which is exactly what I did at the Josameto gate in Poinen.

Anti-Ganking requires a lot of patience, but many of us don't have a problem with that.

Apparently, Currin Trading wasn't that organized. Not only he failed to keep a scout eye on the surrounding systems, but he also thought that he could freely and safely navigate in Highsec with such security status. Eventually, he foolishly jumped into our gatecamp of permit inspection.

Having seen a lack of gankable Pods and Shuttles, he decloaked as usual and warped to the next gate...

…Not this time. The moment he decloaked, a triple wave of warp disruption was almost instantly sent from our Skiff to Currin Trading's bot-aspirant Thrasher.

About 15 seconds after being tackled, Currin Trading finally realized that he couldn't warp. Gankers tend to have slower brains. No doubt the bot-aspirant, repetitive acts of ganking slowed down their reactions. Doomed, messed-up and frustrated,Currin Trading tried to test his chance of ganking something before being thrashed by the faction police. At that moment, in addition to our Skiff, there was also an Augoror Navy Issue and a smaller ship like Slasher or Echelon on the gate. (IIRC, because this is old and I didn't have my dashcam in those days...) Interestingly enough, the Slasher was a robot-like, monotonous spotter alt for another Industrial ganker in that area. Currin Trading finally tried to gank that Slasher.

The gank attempt failed miserably since the Slasher pilot wasn't AFK and swiftly warped away (or jumped through the gate). Also, faction police was already in the area.

In order to stay alive while performing his robot-like ganks in front of the gate guns and their DPS, Currin Trading had preferred to fit some shield tank, but he did not have a valid ganking permit. The problem is, when it comes to this kind of gankers, our invincible Skiff always wins, no matter what, in all cases.

"it stops them from even reaching their target, and gives them a feeling that it might be tricky to actually reach their target in this area. I have seen gankers move elsewhere or stay docked after being catched."

Indeed. Only 1 hour after our disruption, Currin Trading was already settled in Hek, 23 jumps away. Yuck.All gankers are advised to get a proper ganking permit for their operations everywhere in Highsec. Not only it guarantees your operations, but it also makes you a better EVE player.